Taking Commander Locke from Halo: Nightfall into Halo 5: Guardians

Mike Colter isn't simply the star of Halo: Nightfall – the live action, Ridley Scott-produced digital film – he's now an integral part of the Halo Universe, with his character Commander James Locke set to appear in Halo 5: Guardians. We recently spoke with him, talking about the future of his character and finally entering the world of Master Chief.

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Colter has already spent considerable time working on Halo 5: Guardians and can't wait for people to see the finished product: "When he goes into Halo 5, you'll see him transition into a Spartan, a super soldier. It's a prominent role within the game. Obviously Master Chief will be involved, Cortana, but Locke will be one of the playable characters in Halo 5.

"He'll have a prominent role. He's one of the new additions that will be featured throughout the next couple of video games. So you'll see a lot of Commander James Locke."

Halo's approach to producing cross-media experience isn't unique, but it's definitely at the forefront, launching new characters in Nightfall – an ongoing digital feature produced by Sir Ridley Scott no less – before absorbing them back into the core video game franchise. It's a project Colter has found challenging to work on but believes it works for the story they're trying to tell.

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"It’s kind of seamless," he says. "The only technical aspects that are really different is to do with it is voice over and motion capture. They present something of a difficulty because it's not the same as the world of acting, where TV cameras catch all of the subtleties of all you do and you din't have to convey your voice as much as your entire being. It's a little unique in that respect.

"But getting into it and learning to use that muscle took me a little while. I didn’t enjoy putting my headphones on and listening to my own voice."

Similarly, Colter's been spending plenty of time in the motion-capture studio for Guardians, which has presented its own challenges. "It was a bit weird. The motion capture aspect – putting the funny costume on. It was a little weird at first but they’re concentrating on your facial expressions and getting into what you are as a character. With the helmets off, you’ll see my face. That part will be very cinematic and it’ll be like a feature. It looks like me.

"I do think it feels very connected. I think hopefully the audience will have a bit more of emotional connection with the character that they didn’t have."

All in all, Colter has spent significantly more time working Guardians than Nightfall in the grand plan, due to the nature of the respective shoots and just how extensive his involvement with Halo 5: Guardians has been.

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"We did Nightfall in about seven to eight weeks, and it was pretty intense filming for that long. We flew over to Iceland and probably had five days off in total, and one of them was a travel day. We worked at a breakneck pace to get the digital film finished, and it was a different type of process for sure.

"When I returned – well, actually prior to leaving I already started working on the VO aspect of the game, laying the VO track for the character before I left to do the film. Then, when I returned, I spent quite a bit of time in the VO booth, and then it was motion capture, on-and-off, for the next six months. I just did some, actually. All in all, it's expanded to at least seven to eight months just to do the voice over and motion capture. It was scheduled so it would work around me, so it took some time.

But we've got it all done, and hopefully it'll be great. It was a longer process doing the voice over and motion capture than the film because the film had to be done all at once. With the voice over and motion capture, you have a bit of time to spread out the work. So the writers can also decide what they want to do, where they want to take the characters; decide what's working, what's not; sometimes we did some reshoots and things like that. It was a longer, tedious process for the motion capture for sure."

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Colter admits that he wasn't a Halo fan or even player when he accepted the role. Something he believes was a major benefit in bringing Locke to life.

"I’d heard of it. I’d known about it, because it was such a strong brand but I’d never played it," admits Colter. "So up until getting the job it was kind of a foreign thing to me. So I was looking at it from the standpoint as an actor – with a new chatracter, what’s world, what are we trying to do? What do we believe in? What makes him tick? What story are we trying to tell?

"I think it was a benefit I didn’t know much about Halo. When you go into something like this… but if you’re a part of the fanbase, you have to separate that excitement from the job at hand, and approach it as an actor. The craft is different. You’re trying to understand the character and how to play him, and if you’re really excited it’s a hindrance. I think going in without a lot of preconceived notions helps."

Halo 5: Guardians is schedule for release sometime later this year, but Halo: Nightfall is now available on demand, DVD, and Blu-ray, and you can read our review of the entire first season.

Daniel is IGN's Games Editor over in London. He writes about movies, too. You can be part of the world's most embarrassing cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.